Preset radio buttons are common on conventional radios and are well known for use as programmable shortcuts to frequencies associated with favorite radio stations. Mobile data terminal devices that are capable of receiving FM radio transmissions are also known. Like conventional radios, these devices typically include options for storing frequencies associated with favorite radio stations and for quickly tuning to those frequencies. Unlike convention radios, however, many of these mobile devices are connected to data networks, which in turn provide access to the Internet through the device. Because such devices may simultaneously receive FM radio stations and browse the Internet, it is often desirable when listening to the radio to also view the content of a web page associated with the radio station. The content of such a web page may supplement the radio broadcast with further details and information related to the broadcast, or provide additional information such as local news and weather.
These mobile terminal devices, however, do not typically include a means for accessing, in parallel, Internet media and FM broadcast media associated with a radio station. To view web page content for a radio station while listening to the radio station broadcast, a user must typically tune to the radio station of interest, and independently navigate the Internet to find a web site associated with the radio station. The user may navigate to the radio station web site through the use of a pre-selected bookmark for the web site, and may tune to the radio broadcast with a radio station bookmark; however, the user nonetheless independently tunes the radio and navigates the web. The use of a preset radio button along with a web site bookmark requires the user to employ separate steps for controlling access to each media source. Such a process is time-consuming and more complex than necessary. To address this shortcoming in such mobile terminal devices, solutions have been proposed.
One proposed solution includes the use of digital radio services. Digital radio consists of radio broadcasts of data rather than analog transmissions. Because the data transmitted may include various types of information along with audio information, a mobile terminal device receiving digital radio broadcasts may view content associated with the audio radio broadcast. Radio stations broadcasting digital radio, therefore, can transmit information, such as traffic, weather, and advertising information, simultaneous with the audio broadcast. Unless the mobile terminal device is in communication with the Internet, however, the user is limited to one-way communication with the radio station. In other words, the user may be able to view information sent by the radio station, and may even be able to navigate through the information, but the user is unable to request different information or to interact with the radio station in two-way communication.